Applications of the precision viticulture techniques in the Chianti district

Precision Viticulture (PV) represents the set of techniques and technologies that make possible a rational agriculture heavily based on sustainability and the enhancement of Terroir (Proffitt et al. 2006). The exploitation of the latter in wine production and in the marketing strategies, is becoming a common topic in the main and bigger farms. The current market trend, which is increasingly oriented towards the appreciation of typical products, means that the study of “quality” of the vineyard (QV) takes a primary role to safeguarding the identity of the production areas. The QV is defined through the collection of all those agronomic information’s (soil, microclimate, vegetative state, cultivation techniques, etc..) useful for the characterization of a specific plot or part thereof (Vieri et.al, 2010). The combination of the different information, allows secondly to obtain a quantitative characterization of grapes quality themselves (yield per hectare, sugar, acidity, polyphenols, etc.) for example. Therefore, the precision viticulture can be regarded as the set of tools and advanced technologies to achieve a comprehensive knowledge of the state of the vineyard that nevertheless, that should be continuously deepened. In the last fifteen years a lot of studies showed the usefulness of proximal and remote sensing techniques for the canopy characterization and the soil monitoring technologies . In view of these considerations the biosystem engineering research unit has carried out some studies targeted at verifying the applicability of proximal sensors to define useful information in order to improve the qualitative vineyard management therefore the wine. Specifically this study focuses the assessment of two types of sensors to define vineyard features i.e. the plant vegetative vigour indexes and the canopy thickness.